“Hopefully it will mean we will continue to move forward,” said Bates. “I really meant it when I said we’re going to move from being the best urban district to the best district. I didn’t hear any pushback from the community. I believe the community is behind us.”

The school board makes policy decisions and hires the superintendent and treasurer for Ohio’s third-largest school district.

The outgoing board members take lots of experience with them. But Reed said turnover brings fresh ideas.

Bates’ re-election will help maintain some of the institutional knowledge for the district of nearly 33,000. She has been on the board since 2002 and stressed experience in her platform. She also served for seven years on the state Board of Education.

Minera was the only male candidate running. He was born in Guatemala and is a member of the Local School Decision Making Committee at Roberts Academy, a CPS school. He’s also director of Hispanic outreach at City Gospel Mission and tutors families in Price Hill. He touts the district’s community learning centers.

Copeland-Dansby is director of resource development for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati and a CPS graduate herself. Her son attends Walnut Hills. She’s stressed collaboration and transparency in her platform and had a concise four-point plan for improving the schools: equity, excellence, ensuring a 21st-century education and empowering parents and the community.

Hoffman works as a recruiter for Teach for America, a national teacher-training organization. As such, she wouldn’t be able to vote on issues that involve Teach for America or its teachers (CPS is one of several districts that participate in the program). Her twins will be enrolled in CPS kindergarten next year. In her campaign she stressed improving the teacher pipeline at CPS, expanding preschool and engaging parents.

The overall slate consisted of moms (and a dad), teachers, business officials and community organizers.

In candidate forums most agreed on priorities such as making the neighborhood schools as good as the magnet schools, improving teacher quality and stressing strong academics and leadership, although they had varying ideas about how to best achieve those goals.

While past school boards have been somewhat contentious, the current board has generally made decisions without much public drama. The candidates also have stressed collaboration and the need to work together on issues.

They will have some big decisions to tackle in the coming years. Among them: the new evaluations of teachers, new A-F report cards, new tests to go along with Ohio’s new Common Core curriculum standards, the state’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee and negotiating a new teachers union contract in December (the last round of negotiations dragged on for more than a year).

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers had endorsed Bates, Futel, Minera and Shank.

This new board could potentially be charged with hiring a new superintendent if Mary Ronan opts not to renew her contract in August 2015. The district also has a levy expiring next year, so the next board would have to approve putting a renewal on the ballot.

Board members are paid $125 per meeting and serve four-year terms. The board is non-partisan, but candidates are often endorsed and financially supported by various groups. ■